BBC’s The Hour Gets a Second Season

byJames FurbushonDecember 8, 2011

The Hour was one of the best shows this year. It deftly told the story of a group of journalist trying to put together a one hour news program in the face of bureaucratic opposition. There was also some kind of espionage, thriller, murder plot that kind of mucked things up.

Most of the original cast – including Romola Garai, Dominic West and Ben Whishaw – will return to the story of a ’50s BBC newsmagazine show, and the ensemble is getting one hell of an addition in Peter Capaldi as the new Head of News. […]

The sequel will take place in 1957, and as Morgan told me back in the summer, it won’t have the espionage component that drove so many of the first season’s stories, but that I and others ultimately felt was a distraction.

Thank god. On both accounts. The British television absolutely killed it this year between Downton Abbey, The Hour, The Shadow Line, Luther, Misfits, The Trip and more.